Editorial: Ethics and Engineering Design

Abstract

Engineering ethics and science and technology studies (STS) have until now developed as separate enterprises. The authors argue that they can learn a lot from each other. STS insights can help make engineering ethics open the black box of technology and help discern ethical issues in engineering design. Engineering ethics, on the other hand, might help STS to overcome its normative sterility. The contributions in this special issue show in various ways how the gap between STS and engineering ethics might be overcome. In this editorial introduction, the authors discuss the various contributions briefly and delve into the way the various authors conceptualize the engineering design process and the consequences of those conceptualizations for what ethical issues become visible. They also discuss the implications for the responsibility of engineers for technological development.

Keywords

STS engineering ethics engineering design ethical issues responsibility

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Akrich, M. 1992. The de-scription of technological objects. In Shaping technology/building society, eds. W. E. Bijker and J. Law , 205-224. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Bovens, M. 1998. The quest for responsibility: Accountability and citizenship in complex organisations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brumsen, M. and I. Van de Poel , eds. 2001. Special issue on research in engineering ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics 7(3): 365-446.

Chiles, J. R. 2001. Inviting disaster: Lessons from the edge of technology. New York: Harper Business.

Dancy, J. 1993. Moral reasons. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Davis, M. 1998. Thinking like an engineer: Studies in the ethics of a profession. New York: Oxford University Press.

Harris, C. E. Jr. , M. S. Pritchard , and M. J. Rabbins . 1995. Engineering ethics: Concepts and cases. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Goujon, P. , and B. Hériard Dubreil , eds. 2001. Technology and ethics: A European quest for responsible engineering. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters.

Kirwan, B. , A. Hale , and A. Hopkins . 2002. Changing regulation: Controlling risks in society. Amsterdam: Pergamon.

10.

Latour, B. 1992. Where are the missing masses? The sociology of a few mundane artifacts. In Shaping technology/building society, eds. W. E. Bijker and J. Law , 225-258. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

11.

Latour, B. 1993. We have never been modern. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

12.

Lynch, W. T. , and R. Kline . 2000. Engineering practice and engineering ethics. Science, Technology, & Human Values 25 (2): 195-225.

13.

Martin, M. W. , and R. Schinzinger . 1996. Ethics in engineering. New York: McGraw-Hill.

14.

McIntyre, A. 1984. After virtue. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

15.

Vaughan, D. 1996. The Challenger launch decision: Risky technology, culture, and deviance at NASA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

16.

Vincenti, W. G. 1992. Engineering knowledge, type of design, and level of hierarchy: Further thoughts about what engineers know. In Technological development and science in the industrial age, eds. P. Kroes and M. Bakker , 17-34. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer.

17.

Werhane, P. H. 1999. Moral imagination and management decision making. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

18.

Whitbeck, C. 1998. Ethics in engineering practice and research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.